


Shoo-Shoo Baby

by waldorph



Series: Author's Favorites [3]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Angst, Blanket Permission, Canonical Character Death, F/F, POV Female Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-07
Updated: 2012-02-07
Packaged: 2017-10-30 18:11:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/334629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waldorph/pseuds/waldorph
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was the night before Ruby was supposed to leave for New York, when Granny had her heart attack.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shoo-Shoo Baby

**Author's Note:**

> many thanks to **leupagus** for the fantastic beta  <3

Five days a week Ruby unlocks the diner at 5:30am. She lets in the cook and the deliveryman and starts putting the chairs down, and then helps with the prep work. At 6:15 she opens the diner up, leaves a message at the B&B letting Granny know that she’s done it, and works straight out until she closes things down at 1:00am.

She goes back to the B&B, down to her room in the basement, steps out of her clothes, wipes her face down, braids her hair, and collapses into bed for four precious hours of sleep before doing it all again. Two days a week she works the B&B where she gets to sleep until 7:30am and go to bed at 8:00pm.

She’s been doing this for two years.

* * *

It was the night before she was supposed to leave for New York, when Granny had her heart attack.

That night Ruby was supposed to be done, free, finally rid of Storybrooke.

She got the call from the hospital and she stood for a beat, then another, until she realized the woman on the other end had been repeating her name.

“Yeah, I’m here.”

“Ruby. She’s in bad shape, and you’re her—you’re her emergency contact, and we need you here, honey.”

Ruby stood there, next to her car, all packed up and ready to go, and thought, _I could hang up. I could hang up, and I could go to New York, and that’d be it._

She got in the car and went to the hospital.

* * *

Ruby’s father died in a construction accident when she was five, and her mother got cancer and died when she was sixteen.

She used to have this daydream that someone was going to come and take her away from Storybrooke, and then she realized that wasn’t happening. She stopped smoking and applied to the Manhattan School of Music.

She got in, and for the first time in years she smiled.

Granny gave her the speech—the “if you leave so you can sleep your way down the eastern seaboard don’t you ever come back” variation, and Ruby had hummed _Shoo-Shoo Baby_ and started packing.

* * *

Ruby wouldn’t have noticed her if not for the blatant breaking-and-entering.

It was 2:00am, and she was exhausted and not dressed for the sudden cold snap of late October (it had been hovering around 50 all week, and of course that was the night it dropped to 30), and she actually stood, staring for a second, before she rallied.

“Are you—are you really breaking in?” she asked, shifting her weight back and forth. The girl looked at her, still on her knees with the lock pick in hand and _in the lock_ , then nodded.

“Yep,” she agreed. There was an accent there, though Ruby couldn’t place it beyond “Not Storybrooke.” She pulled her flimsy coat tighter around her, smelling the snow on the air.

“Are you—” Ruby stopped, fingering her cell phone. She wanted to say ‘suicidal’ but she thought that might be rude, even if it was fucking true.

“Lupe,” the girl introduced herself, and the accent was Spanish, and Ruby must be exhausted if that was what she was focusing on. Lupe pulled off her leather glove with her teeth to offer her hand.

“Ruby,” Ruby said, and took it, hand briefly warmed.

“Nice meeting you, but, uh. I got things to do, so.” She gestured over her shoulder, shrugging, but she didn’t let go of Ruby’s hand. Ruby should probably take it back, or something, but she didn’t.

“It’s...kind of a small town?” Ruby said. “I mean, someone is going to see you.”

“You saw me,” Lupe pointed out, squeezing Ruby’s hand lightly before withdrawing, pulling her glove back on and jostling her lock pick, grinning at the _snick_ that even Ruby could hear. “You got a cell phone, you could call the cops.”

“I—” Ruby started, heart in her throat as the door swung open easily. A part of her expected to see Mr. Gold standing behind one of his counters, shrouded in smoke like something out of an old horror movie.

Lupe pulled up her gray hood, squinting into the dim shop. “You think he has alarms?”

“I think no one is stupid enough to do this,” Ruby replied.

Lupe grinned at her. “Yeah, but I’m not just anyone, querida.”

* * *

Ruby used to think that the kids in her class were cursed, but really she could have just meant all the kids in the town. They got knocked up or controlled by their parents or orphaned or hospitalized.

She was going to get out.

She was going to break the curse.

* * *

Her mother had a piano. A Steinway that Ruby learned on, loved. Sometimes, when she played well enough, loud enough, it was like the world melted away. Her mother loved it when Ruby played. Her father put away chunks of his paycheck to get her lessons when she was three. When she was still young enough to be that stupid, she thought if she played loud enough he would be able to hear her in heaven.

She sold it to pay Granny’s hospital bills.

Mayor Mills bought it, and now it sat in the mansion, untouched.

* * *

_“Sheriff’s office.”_

“There’s a break-in at Mr. Gold’s,” Ruby said as she pulled off her uniform and unhooked her bra.

_“Ruby?”_

“Uh-huh,” she agreed, wiping her face down and climbing into bed. “It was about five minutes ago?”

 _“I’ll go check it out,”_ Emma said, sounding like she was about to start laughing.

“Okay,” Ruby said, yawning hugely.

_“Go to bed, Ruby.”_

“Uh-huh.”

She woke up with the phone indented on her cheek, blaring her alarm too close to her head.

* * *

Lupe Velasquez was a security specialist brought in by Mr. Gold to test his current security systems. He seemed more amused than anything by the fact that Ruby called Sheriff Swan _after_ she got home.

“Made an impression, hm?” he asked, all slippery insinuation when he came in for a morning coffee. “Yes, well. Very good at what she does, Ms. Velasquez.” He rolled the name around on his tongue like it was honey.

Ruby figured fine, that was...that good, whatever. That would be the end of it. Mr. Gold would update his security and Lupe Velasquez would go back to wherever she came from.

* * *

She didn’t leave town. Ruby saw her a few times walking by the diner, smoking and talking into her phone.

* * *

It was useful working at the diner/bar, because by the end of Lupe’s first week Ruby knew all there was to know.

Lupe Velasquez rode a bike, dressed for comfort, and had dog tags tucked under her shirt.

No one knew where she was from originally, though the agreement was somewhere in the south.

She was twenty-four, four years older than Ruby, and did a tour of duty in Afghanistan. She was honorably discharged.

She hated the mayor (allegedly), loved dogs (spent a good five minutes with Pongo the other night, and if Archie liked her she had to be all right), and spoke Spanish when she didn’t want to talk to you (which seemed to be a lot, actually).

No one could prove anything, but she was either fucking Mr. Gold or she was his bastard daughter, because she was almost always with him, and they were almost always laughing, and no one could possibly want to be around him voluntarily unless they were thinking with their pants, or biologically related.

She was living out in the old place at the edge of the forest—the one at the end of Tinker Street that had been abandoned since God-knew-when. Turned out Mr. Gold owned it, and he was putting her up there while she worked for him.

Ruby listened, and tried not to be overly attentive.

Henry sat at the counter and drank his milkshake and asked, after listening to Sidney and Dylan talk seriously about whether or not there was a possibility of Lupe dealing drugs, if he could tell her a secret. Ruby grinned and looks carefully around before leaning in to hear it. He glanced seriously around too, and then told her that she was Little Red Ridinghood.

“And where’s the wolf?” she asked. She liked him, for all his mother was a twat. Henry, she thought, might actually make it out.

Henry just looked sad for a minute, sucking on his straw seriously. “I don’t know, that’s part of the curse,” he finally admitted. “Hey, so that new lady working for Mr. Gold has been asking about you,” he said brightly, and Ruby didn’t think about why that made her smile.

* * *

_I like the skirt today, Rojita_

Ruby blinked down at her phone, then grinned and leaned against the counter. _How did you get this number?_

_It’s a small town people are very helpful._

_Gross invasion of privacy._

_I got a place, you should definitely come see me._

_I’m working, and if you’ve got a place it’s at my grandmother’s, which isn’t sexy._

_Gold owed me. Come on. It’s lonely here._

_The jail has people to keep you company._

_Ouch, what big teeth you have._

Ruby laughed and tucked her phone away and finished her shift feeling like she was floating.

* * *

“This is breaking and entering,” Ruby said when Lupe walked into the back room where Ruby was doing inventory at 4:45 in the morning. Ruby wasn’t going to ask how she got in, or knew Ruby would be here, or even what she was doing.

“You can call the cops,” Lupe said, and Ruby blamed the accent for the way she flushed, just a little.

“I could,” Ruby agreed, putting down the clipboard and raising an eyebrow, heart hammering in her chest—a steady beat of _please please please._

Lupe leaned in, easy, never unsure of her welcome, and Ruby tilted her head and arched her back just a little.

Lupe smiled and murmured, husky against Ruby’s lips, “You won’t.”

She kissed like she wanted Ruby’s soul, slid her hand down Ruby’s stomach like she owned her, pressing her back against the counter, invading her space.

“My—anyone could—” Ruby started to protest, because early shift was going to start, and Paul was bringing the bacon and sausage and Jenna had an egg delivery scheduled and—

“Mm,” Lupe agreed, unbuttoning Ruby’s shorts and sliding the zipper down, slipping her hand in and pressing her fingers against Ruby’s clit, rubbing. Ruby’s hips snapped forward, head falling back and hands gripping the counter. Lupe bit at her neck, at her collarbones, slid her fingers into Ruby’s pussy then back out, working her clit ruthlessly.

“Come for me, let me see you,” she breathed against Ruby’s ear, too-hot. Ruby was burning up, couldn’t catch her breath. “So fucking hot, begging for it, my good girl,” Lupe continued, and Ruby wanted that, _yes_. Anything Lupe wanted as long as she kept doing that, and then Ruby was biting her lips, whining helplessly as she came so hard her vision grayed out.

“Oh, fuck,” she breathed, and Lupe laughed a little, bringing her soaked fingers to Ruby’s lips and pushing them in. Ruby’d done that before, slid her fingers inside and tasted, curious, but she was licking Lupe’s fingers clean, now, pussy still throbbing. Lupe slid her thigh between Ruby’s legs, dragged her thumb across Ruby’s lower lip, smearing her lipstick.

“You,” she says, green eyes hungry on Ruby’s face. “You’re going to be such a good girl for me, Rojita.”

Ruby nodded, rolling her hips and riding Lupe’s thigh, just a little. Lupe laughed and pressed a biting kiss to Ruby’s lips.

“Later,” she said. “And you might...want to clean up a little.” She considered, stepping back and canting her hips. “Or not. You look good enough to eat right now.”

* * *

Ruby spent five minutes in the bathroom trying to put herself back together and figure out what happened and how she could get it to happen again.

 _I get off at 10 tonight_ she texted with thumbs that seemed to tremble.

 _How do you feel about vibrators?_ Lupe texted back, and Ruby laughed, anticipation a low hum under her skin.

* * *

A month or so after they started fucking, Lupe began to come to the diner for breakfast.

She would sit in the mostly-empty diner in sweats and a long-sleeved tee and inhale whatever Ruby put in front of her (mostly meat and eggs—she didn’t like pancakes or waffles but she would eat them if Ruby gave them to her). Some mornings, when Ruby was refilling her orange juice (orange juice and water, never coffee), she’d grab Ruby’s wrist and refuse to let it go until Ruby gave her a kiss.

And Ruby would roll her eyes and laugh and then hop up on the counter to press a chaste kiss to Lupe’s cheek, or her nose, or her forehead, and Lupe would sigh and call her a tease, but never press her for more.

In a weird way, Ruby thought this is some sort of seduction campaign.

Which—they’d already fucked a couple times. Ruby wasn’t sure why now she was being seduced.

* * *

“I haven’t heard you sing in a while,” Mary Margaret said, and it’s only then that Ruby realized she’d been singing along to the radio, old big-band hits heavy on Vera Lynn and Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters.

She shifted, feeling caught-out and uncomfortable.

“I’m happy for you,” Mary Margaret said, squeezing her hand before heading out the door.

* * *

Sometimes, Ruby would swear Lupe wasn’t even human, because she seemed to ghost in and out of places, impossible to track down when she didn’t want to be tracked. She would vanish for a couple days, sometimes a week, and Mr. Gold wouldn’t say anything.

And then, like now, Ruby would be doing something innocuous, like bending over to dust a bookshelf at the B&B, and fingers would suddenly trace the seam of her shorts, pressing against her pussy.

Ruby stood up fast, ready to smack the living hell out of whoever it was, but hands grabbed her hip and one of her tits and Lupe said in her ear, “Aw, and I thought we had something special.”

“This is harassment,” Ruby said, breathing too fast. God, she was already wet, nipple hard under Lupe’s hand.

“You want to stop?” Lupe asked, but it wasn't a genuine question, not really, because she was pushing Ruby back down. “Brace yourself on the shelf, like you’re a good girl.”

“This is—”

“You’ve got a pretty mouth, but if you can’t shut it I’ll shut it for you,” Lupe informed her as she pulled Ruby’s shorts down her legs, kicking her ankles apart a little. Ruby bit her lower lip, grinning at this whole situation, bent like something out of a porno and perched precariously on her heels. “Nice,” Lupe murmured as she dragged Ruby’s panties down, sliding her thumb up and down the slit of Ruby’s pussy. “Definitely good enough to eat.”

Lupe’s hands were gripping Ruby’s hips, thumbs opening her up as Lupe pressed her tongue in, then dragged her mouth down to suck at Ruby’s clit, teeth pressing the skin around it, just this side of too-hard. It was over too fast, and Ruby was still shaking through her orgasm when she shoved Lupe back against the wall, kissing her frantically.

“Come on, Rojita” Lupe said, guiding Ruby’s hand between her legs, under the unbuttoned jeans.

“Oh, God,” Ruby groaned, working her fingers frantically, trying to bring Lupe off because she wanted to—wanted to make her come, wanted to be good enough that Lupe kept coming back.

* * *

She had this dream, that she fell in love with someone and they were cursed. She dreamt that she ran through the woods searching, but she never found them.

Every morning she would wake up and swear she was going to stop reading fairytales.

* * *

117 Tinker Street was a tiny little house that had been vacant a long as Ruby could remember, but right now there was a bike in the driveway and a thrumming baseline working its way through the pavement. She shifted her weight on her impractically high heels and decided to knock. Usually she texted before she came over—she was suddenly uncertain. What if Lupe was working?

“¡Está abierta!”

“Aren’t you afraid someone could rob you?” Ruby asked as she shuts the door behind her.

“And who would be that stupid?” Lupe asks, invading Ruby’s personal space, crowding her up against the door and kissing her hard. “But, if you’re worried.”

She reached past Ruby’s hip and locked the door.

“I might just be here to hang out,” Ruby said as Lupe began working at her shirt.

Lupe grinned. “Yes, but then you would not get to see my dick, and you, Rojita. You are going to like my dick.”

* * *

Ruby definitely liked Lupe’s dick. It was a glittery green silicone thing, and it wasn’t real but she still bobbed on it like Lupe was going to blow a load. Mostly because when Ruby pressed just right Lupe made the best noise, and Lupe talked a lot while they fucked, but she rarely just groaned.

“Just wait until I’m fucking you,” Lupe whispered, fisting the hair at the nape of Ruby’s neck and guiding her now. “There’s a vibrator in this and you...you are going to love it. But right now, I want to see you take it deeper.”

Ruby relaxed her throat and thought she could do this, she could be good. She wanted desperately to reach between her legs and rub one out, but Lupe told her to keep her hands behind her, and so she was going to be good if it killed her.

“Oh, Rojita,” Lupe groaned, pulling her up by her hair and pressing stinging kisses to her mouth. “Come on, niñeta, I know what you want. Come on, sit on it, there you go.”

Ruby did, braced herself and rode Lupe’s dick, bouncing up and down, coming and still working herself on it, almost screaming and wrecked with this, holding on.

* * *

Lupe had a tattoo of a wolf on her back. It was a big piece, and Ruby traced its outline as she watched the clock tick down the minutes until she had to go to work.

“I’ll tell you the story when you come home tonight,” Lupe mumbled, and Ruby laughed and slid out of bed, because Lupe was still asleep, and had no idea what she was saying.

* * *

“I don’t like her,” Granny announced a few days after the new year.

“Who?” Ruby asked. This town was full of women and the men who played supporting roles. Except Mr. Gold, who was always an outlier.

“That Luba Garcia,” Granny muttered, pouring herself a beer. “She’s trouble.”

Ruby wondered if that assumption was based off of anything other than Lupe’s accent or skin color. She doubted it—the only person in town who wasn’t white was Sidney Glass, and Granny all but crossed to the other side of the street when Sidney walked by.

“I like her,” Ruby told her.

Granny snorted. “Yeah, well. You haven’t exactly got a history for great taste, have you?”

“Gran—”

“Well, come on, honey. The only way I could keep your legs together was to work you so hard you couldn’t do anything in that bed except sleep. And don’t think I know you’ve got another one, now, and I’ll tell you it’s not going to happen under my _roof_ —”

“Oh, shut up, Gran!” Ruby snapped, grabbing her coat.

“The hell are you going?” Granny yelled after her. “You’ve got a shift to finish, there’s cleaning up that needs to be done!”

 _”Do it yourself!”_ Ruby shouted.

“Go on, slut it up, but don’t you come home, I don’t want that under my roof!” Granny hollered after her for the whole fucking street to hear as Ruby slammed out of the diner. Archie, who was walking Pongo, paused and then gave Ruby a tight, kindly sort of smile, pitying and judgmental all at once. Ruby stalked down the sidewalk furiously in her thigh-high boots. She didn’t grab gloves or a scarf or hat, and her jacket was too-short and her tights were too-thin and Maine in December was brutally, startlingly cold.

She didn’t mean to go to Lupe. She honestly didn’t notice when she turned off of Main Street and crossed Grimm Avenue to Tinker Street, but she was suddenly standing on Lupe’s doorstep with Lupe looking at her quizzically. She had no memory of knocking, but now she was here and mortified. Her cheeks were hot and her eyes were stinging and god, yes, that was great. That was great—now she was going to cry.

Ruby forced herself to smile, shrugging apologetically and blinking furiously. “I don’t—I didn’t know where else to go,” she admitted. “I can just—sorry—”

“Oh, Rojita,” Lupe murmured and pulled her in, shutting the door behind her. She held onto her and that was it. Curtains, Ruby was sobbing, shaking apart.

She didn’t know how long she stayed there, how long she sobbed into Lupe’s shoulder while Lupe stroked her hair.

“I know this isn’t —” Ruby started, pulling away and rubbing ineffectually at Lupe’s t-shirt, which was now smeared with eyeliner and mascara and lipstick. It was a lost cause—that was never coming out.

“Shut up, querida,” Lupe said, and pulls her into the livingroom. She settled her on the couch with a blanket and then disappears. Ruby sank into it, inhaling the scent on quilt, feeling the texture of it.

There was a fire crackling, and Ruby leaned down against the arm of the sofa and watched it, let her mind clear of everything else.

“Come on, come on,” Lupe said, pulling her up and there was a bath, and Ruby went where she was put, sank into the hot water and let Lupe wash her face off, wash her hair and rinse her and wrap her in a towel and tuck her into bed. “Go to sleep, Rojita,”

And Ruby did.

* * *

She had this dream. She’d had it as long as she could remember.

She was running in the woods, looking for someone, but what she found was a wolf.

The wolf’d been shot, a black arrow protruding from her side, and Ruby collapsed and before she hit the ground she woke up.

* * *

Ruby woke up at 10 in the morning and saw her laptop on the bedside table. Her clothes were in the closet and in the wardrobe, and her mug was on the table.

“You broke into my grandmother’s house,” Ruby said, and Lupe looked up from where she was reading _The Daily Mirror_ with a red pen between her teeth. Ruby frowned and tilted her head—yep, Lupe was correcting the paper’s typos. She was probably going to send it in as a note to the editor, too. Lupe was kind of a bitch, Ruby reflected as she poured herself coffee and smiled.

“I did that,” Lupe agreed, taking the pen out of her mouth and circling a word.

* * *

Ruby liked take-out as much as the next person, but this was ridiculous, and after two weeks she insisted they go shopping.

She didn’t realize she was living with a child, because if it had sugar and was brightly colored, Lupe wanted it. Eventually Ruby won and they got adult food, and Lupe paid while Ruby pretended she didn’t see the curious stares of everyone around them.

“Nosy fuckers,” Lupe observed as they headed out to Ruby’s mustang (because despite the fact that Lupe insisted she could get a sidecar, it was January in Maine and Ruby needed heat).

“Jealous,” Ruby corrected, kissing her cheek as she opened the trunk.

“Excuse me, there are children present,” the Mayor scolded, lifting her eyebrow at them, mouth stuck in that condescending frown. Lupe smiled at Henry.

“Hola, chico,” she said, and continued loading groceries into the trunk.

“Mom, it’s okay,” Henry told his mother earnestly. “I know all about lesbians and gay people. We learned about tolerance and stuff in school.”

Ruby didn’t flinch at the look on Regina’s face, but it was close. Ruby should probably call Mary Margaret and warn her that Regina was going to be stopping by.

“I think it’s nice,” Henry decided, and then climbed into his mother’s car.

“Kid thinks it’s nice,” Lupe told Regina, slamming the trunk shut. “Ready?” she asked Ruby, who nodded and started for the passenger side.

“My _son_ ,” Regina snarled, stepping into Lupe’s space, “is none of your concern, and he doesn’t need to be exposed to this—”

“This bigoted asshole act you have down?” Lupe asked, tilting her head and leaning right in, spoiling for the fight, and Ruby glanced around and saw that everyone was watching, but she couldn’t step in, because there was something in Lupe’s voice. Something feral and dangerous, and Regina narrowed her eyes, searching Lupe’s. What she found, whatever it was, it made her startle and step back.

“Smart,” Lupe said, and then got in the car.

* * *

“That was so hot,” Ruby said, pressing a kiss to Lupe’s thigh before pressing back into her pussy with tongue and fingers.

“Nngh,” Lupe agreed.

* * *

"Oh, hi!" Mary Margaret said when Ruby stepped out of the post office. She was officially the second resident at 117 Tinker Street now.

"Hey, Mary Margaret,” Ruby said, wondering if she had the energy to cook dinner tonight or if it was take-out.

"I had a favor to ask you—you know that Mrs. Brown got pneumonia, right?"

"Yeah, I heard."

"Well, so we're sort of hard up for a music teacher at school? I mean, if you wanted—you always did school plays and I know you wanted to study, and it’d only be for the semester but maybe it could turn into a permanent thing?” Mary Margaret looked a little nervous, but hopeful. “They’ll cut it, is the thing, and music is so important for kids, and it’s not really part of the older grades curriculum—”

“Yeah,” Ruby said, surprising even herself. “I mean, I’d like to—”

“Let me call Principle Kelly and we’ll set something up. Oh my God, Ruby, you’d be a lifesaver, you have no idea,” Mary Margaret said, and pulled out her cell phone right there.

Ruby hadn’t worked at Granny’s since she stormed out, and it was a small town, but after a long interview in which she had to do less reassuring that she’d dress appropriately than she thought she’d have to, she got the job.

She went shopping for longer skirts and shorter heels and searched Pinterest for hairstyles that were a little bit less “slutty schoolgirl” and maybe more “naughty librarian”.

* * *

“Why does Mr. Gold owe you a favor?” Ruby asked one day over dinner.

Lupe smiled and played with her tags. “I found him a baby, once.”

* * *

Ruby knew that the center couldn’t hold. She was too happy, they were too settled. She was in love with the woman who loved her back, and she wasn’t playing in concert halls but she was teaching music and singing.

She was happy, but she would jerk awake crying more often than not, sliding out of bed and heading into the bathroom, staring at her reflection, telling herself this was stupid: nothing was wrong, they were fine.

* * *

(But she would stand there in the dim light and think that she was this happy once, and that it was all ripped from her, and no matter how often Lupe told her she was being silly, that they were just dreams—Ruby couldn’t help feeling like the bottom was going to drop out. Couldn’t help holding her breath when Lupe headed out in the morning, couldn’t help staring down Tinker Street until Lupe walked up the driveway.)

* * *

Once upon a time, there was a girl whose mother made her a cloak of red, and she wore it so often everyone called her Red. As she grew older, and more lovely, the village children teased her that her cloak was the color of a kiss.

One day, on her way to her grandmother’s, Red met a woman in the forest. She was a stranger, from a distant kingdom, a soldier who had completed her tours to the front and was trying to find peace in the vast forest. The soldier laughed and pulled Red in, kissed her until her lips were the color of her name, and then sent her on her way.

But Red kept returning, and the soldier would be waiting for her, just off the beaten path, and kisses turned to more, until everyone who knew her said that Red had never been more lovely than she was now that she was in love.

Some time later, word spread throughout the kingdom that a woman had crossed the Queen. A soldier, they said, who escaped with her heart. An ally of Rumpelstiltskin’s, who had saved him, perhaps, or he had saved her, but the soldier, they said, had been cursed.

Red knew it was her soldier who they spoke of, but still she passed through the woods and looked deep into the forest on either side of the path, searching for her beloved to no avail.

And then one day she happened upon a wolf with her beloved’s green eyes, and Red fell to her knees and wept for joy that she had found her soldier, and because she knew that curses could always be broken. The tears of true love hold a power, and though they could not break the curse which turned the woman into the wolf, they altered it. In the daylight hours the soldier took her human form, and when the sun set behind the mountains she once again became the wolf.

They were happy, then, for long time. The soldier liked her woods, liked to be alone and away from people—she had seen so much killing and the worst of humanity that she preferred her solitude.

And then one day the soldier vanished again. Red searched the forest, asked as casually as she could of the princess in exile, Snow White, the Dwarves, the Woodcutter and his children, the Gingerbread Man, if they had seen a wolf with green eyes. None she asked knew of the wolf, nor the soldier.

Finally, Red went to Rumpelstiltskin, for she knew her soldier had a fondess for him, and he for her. “Please,” Red said. “Please, I only want to know. I’m willing to make a deal, I only want to see her.”

And though his face was strange, and his manner given to madness, Red perceived a great sorrow in his features as he gave her a map and a potion, and took nothing from her in return.

Red followed the map for three days and nights, and as midnight struck on the third night she heard the whine of an arrow and a high-pitched cry. She broke into a run, and then abruptly she broke the treeline of a small clearing at the heart of the vast forest.

Her wolf was there, held fast to the ground by an ebony arrow of the Queen’s Royal Guard. The wolf’s breath was labored and the ground was damp with spilled blood, and as Red raced to her side the sun rose and the wolf changed to the soldier, breast pierced by the thick, ugly arrow, face gone ashen.

“Please, I’m here now,” Red pleaded. “I’m here, and everything will be fine. I found you, my love, and we’ll be together, always.”

“What sad eyes you have, my little red one,” the soldier gasped, and smiled a blood-stained smile that lingered after she was gone.

Red stayed in that clearing until Rumpelstiltskin found her, buried the soldier and cleaned Red of the dirt and blood which seemed soaked into her very being. Then he pressed the potion into her hands.

“Drink, dearie,” he said, gentle and still so very mad. “Drink, and be heartbroken no longer.”

And Red drank the potion because she thought that she could die of this heartbreak. She drank and slept, and upon waking she had forgotten that she’d had true love, and did not question how she came to be living with her grandmother.

Some days, though, especially when she was in the forest, she would look down at her cloak and think that it was less the color of a kiss and more the color of blood, and she was sad for no reason she could fathom.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic came from two things: a) the fact that I want Rosario Dawson to be the Wolf on _Once Upon a Time_ \- or really, just any woman of color because how awesome would that be?- and b) I’m curious about the whole happily-ever-after concept, because most of the people in the OUAT world don’t seem to have had a happily-ever-after for the Queen to ruin. So if the people who had their happily-ever-afters lost them in our world, would the people who lost theirs in the fairytale world gain them in ours? The title comes from the Andrews Sisters song of the same name which I love.
> 
> * * *
> 
>  **Blanket Permission:** go ahead and translate, make podfic, rework the fic, or do whatever other transformative work you can think of. If the work is hosted on another site, drop me a comment or email and I'll put a link in the story notes!
> 
> [twitter:](https://twitter.com/waldorph) for unfiltered me || [tumblr:](http://waldorph.tumblr.com/) less about me, more about the pretty gifsets and art


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